ASIO had no contact with Zygier: Dreyfus

Melbourne-raised alleged Mossad spy Ben Zygier did not have contact with Australian security agencies before his death in an Israeli prison in 2010, according to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

Mr Dreyfus' office has issued a statement saying he received a briefing on the Zygier case from the director-general of the nation's domestic spy agency, ASIO.

Mr Zygier, a dual Australia-Israel citizen, committed suicide in December 2010 but his identity in jail was hidden behind the tag Prisoner X. Israeli media reports say his death went unnoticed by guards for a full hour.

The statement said: ''The Attorney-General has been fully briefed by the director-general of ASIO on his agency’s knowledge of this case.

''The director-general's account is entirely consistent with the recent statement issued by the Israeli Prime Minister.''

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said this week that there was ''excellent co-operation, full co-ordination and complete transparency'' between the two countries.

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But the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program is standing by its story that Mr Zygier was arrested by his own spymasters because they believed he had shared Israeli secrets with ASIO.

Fairfax Media revealed Mr Zygier, who had migrated to Israel in 2000 and travelled to Australia to change his name and passport at least three times, was under ASIO surveillance at the time of his arrest.

Mr Zygier was suspected, along with two other dual Australian-Israeli citizens, of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

His identity was revealed last week by Foreign Correspondent, but it is still unclear precisely why Israel kept him jailed in secrecy for the 10 months before his death.

Mr Dreyfus' spokeswoman said ''as often happens in cases of this nature, speculative material has found its way into the public domain'' but neither the Attorney-General nor the director-general of ASIO would not comment on what she described as ''inaccuracies''.

''Consistent with the long standing practice adhered to by governments from both sides of politics, the government will not comment on intelligence matters,'' the spokeswoman said.

Israeli media reported on Thursday that Mr Zygier was left hanging in the bathroom of his cell for more than an hour by prison guards who failed to keep watch on the inmate known to them as ''Prisoner X''.

Mr Dreyfus' spokeswoman said Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr had ordered a review of the handling of the consular aspects of this case by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

She said the review was being led by a senior officer of the Department and would be completed promptly.

''The Attorney-General has said that he has seen nothing at this stage to indicate that an additional review is needed,'' the spokeswoman said.